Australia tops use of ecstasy: UN

Australia has the highest levels of ecstasy use in the world and ranks only second after Thailand for methamphetamine use, a UN report released yesterday has found.

However, the UN global survey on ecstasy and amphetamines has come under harsh criticism, with one expert saying the data from country to country was incomparable.

Paul Dillon, spokesman for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said while ecstasy use had increased significantly in certain age groups in Australia, the UN's findings were questionable.

"Some country's prevalence data is collected from army conscripts, [while] Australia's is a representative sample from 27,000 households around the country, so we are going to have more reliable data - it's like comparing apples to oranges," Mr Dillon said.

Australia had different legal frameworks, different cultures, and different drug use patterns to other comparable countries such as the US and Britain, where cocaine use was more prevalent, he said.

"We need to be aware of levels of amphetamine and ecstasy use and inform users and potential users of the risks - this outrageous statement from the UN causes more harm than good."

Statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show the use of ecstasy increased from 1.1 per cent of the population in 1991 to 2.9 per cent in 2001.

Amphetamine use increased from 2.6 per cent to 3.4 per cent over the same period.

The institute's 2003 report on drug use in Australia makes this warning about comparisons: "Countries use various types of population surveys and other data collection methods and therefore comparisons should be treated with caution."

The UN's Ecstasy and Amphetamines Global Survey 2003 found the use of the drugs in Australia was a "serious and growing . . . phenomenon.

"Domestic manufacturers supply the majority of methamphetamine available on the Australian market, typically from small-scale, often mobile, clandestine laboratories," it said.

Meanwhile, the local manufacture of ecstasy was limited in Australia, with European countries, and South-East Asia and China, the most likely point of origin, the report found.

It said the imported tablets were often ground up, diluted and resold as tablets. They were of inconsistent quality, while fake ecstasy - containing ingredients such as ketamine, paracetamol and caffeine - was also produced locally, complete with logos to make the tablets look authentic.

Thailand had the world's highest amphetamine use, at 5.6 per cent of its population aged over 15, followed by Australia (3.4 per cent), the Philippines (2.8 per cent), Ireland (2.6 per cent), Japan (1.7 per cent), Britain(1.6 per cent) and Estonia (1.4 per cent), the report said.

After Australia, Ireland had the next highest ecstasy use (2.4 per cent), followed by Britain (2.2 per cent), Spain (1.8 per cent), Belgium (1.7 per cent) and the US (1.5 per cent).

One per cent of the world's population, or 40 million people, had used amphetamine or ecstasy-like substances, the UN report said. Almost all countries reported a strong concentration of drug use among young people, particularly in dance and club settings.